Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2023 October 16

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October 16

The use of a 3 as a stylized E

Look at H3llb3nt. I believe the 3's in this name are simply stylized E's. However, look at M3GAN. Reading the plot shows that the 3 in this name is a real numeral 3 and NOT a stylized E; yet it is pronounced as if it were a stylized E. Any interesting case of this that you can name?? Georgia guy (talk) 15:54, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

Elon Musk wanted to call the entry-level Tesla the Model E, so that the full range could spell S-E-X-Y. But there was already a car called a Model E, so he called it the Model 3 instead. --Viennese Waltz 16:56, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

NUMB3ERS television show.
Sleigh (talk) 17:34, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

NUMB3RS, actually. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:14, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

See also Leet. Nanonic (talk) 18:07, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

In one of his songs from the 1950s, Tom Lehrer talked about a friend of his who spelled his name Hen3ry. He said the 3 was silent. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:20, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

Hen3ry the eighth I am, I am. Hen3ry the eighth I am. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 22:07, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

Then there was the cover of "Sgt. Pepper", which featured BEATLES in all caps, and some of the "Paul is dead" hoaxsters claimed that upside down it could be read as 5371438, which was supposed to be an important phone number in their theory. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:23, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

The way I heard it, the guitar made of yellow flowers under the word "Beatles" was claimed to spell out the word "PAUL?" --Viennese Waltz 13:36, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

"Mrs. Wilson is President!"

Wikipedia appears to make no reference to this quote from sometime in the 1918-1921 interval. Internet sites talking about it reveal it was by someone named Albert B. Fall. But Wikipedia's article on Albert B. Fall says nothing about Mrs. Wilson. Any article talking about information related to this quote anywhere?? Georgia guy (talk) 17:45, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

Seems to be December 4, 1919. Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 18:13, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

The earliest mention of the quote which Google Books is bringing up is a 1921 issue of Ladies Home Journal; it attributes it to Fall but does not give a date: [1]. Warofdreams talk 22:21, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

Is this what inspired Hillary Clinton: I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president.? -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:29, 16 October 2023 (UTC)

This article in the Smithsonian Magazine also places it in 1919, in which Fall is reported to have shouted on the Senate floor, "We have [a] petticoat government. Wilson is not acting. Mrs. Wilson is president." (I only get a GBS snippet view on the link above after December 4, 1919. I don't get why the author inserted "[a]", just "petticoat government" seems fine to me.)  --Lambiam 10:49, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

My impression is that it was actually during a Senate Foreign Affairs committee meeting (rather than just on the floor). Power With Grace (1975) adds that Fall called Wilson the "Presidentress who had fulfilled the dream of the suffragettes by changing her title from First Lady to Acting First Man" (p. 218). Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 14:39, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Ellen and Edith (2010) notes that the Foreign Relations Committee had Secretary of State Lansing testify on December 4 ("about the still-turbulent situation in Mexico). At that meeting, Lansing said that he hadn't talked to Wilson about Mexico since August, and people were concerned about Wilson's health. They sent Fall and Hitchcock to talk to Wilson on December 5. When there, Fall reportedly (according to Edith herself), said "Well, Mr. President, we have all been praying for you." to which Wilson responded "Which way, Senator?"
It is not hard to imagine Fall making his comments during the session where Lansing testified the day before. Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 14:48, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

For background, see Edith_Wilson#Increased_role_after_husband's_stroke. Woodrow Wilson, president 1913-1921, was severely weakened by a stroke in 1919. Since this was almost half a century before the creation of a constitutional process for handling presidential disability, no one exactly knew what to do (presidents had died and been replaced, but no president had suffered long-term disability), and Edith Wilson ended up taking over many of her husband's responsibilities. Nyttend (talk) 22:50, 16 October 2023 (UTC)